Access Holdings has emerged as the country’s biggest lender by revenue in 2024, the 2025 PREMIUM TIMS Annual Banking Report has shown.
The annual special print publication, which clocks five this year, tracks the performance of nine top commercial banks in their yearly audited financial reports.
The publication released in October spotlights the key events, trends and developments that shaped the banking industry in the previous year, analysing topical subjects across industry regulation and operation with rigour, depth and precision.
This year’s review shows that Access Holdings, already Nigeria’s biggest banking group by assets, posted gross earnings of N4.9 trillion in 2024, marking an 88 per cent increase over the N2.6 trillion recorded in 2023.
Zenith Bank took the second position, reporting N4 trillion in revenue, which was 86.3 per cent higher than the N2.1 trillion reported a year earlier. The lender earlier emerged as the bank with the highest Profit After Tax in the period under review.
Pan-African lender UBA came third in terms of gross earnings, growing topline by more than half to N3.2 trillion from the 2023 level, which stood at N2.1 trillion.
Macros, like contractionary monetary policy, which encouraged interest rate hikes and currency devaluation, which boosted the value of foreign currency assets in local currency terms, were the cornerstones on which record revenue for nearly all the banks rested.
The nine banks reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES posted a combined N20.9 trillion in gross earnings, more than four fifths up year on year.
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About Access Holding
Access Holding, which was incorporated in 1989 and commenced business the same year as a commercial bank under the name “Access Bank,” became a holding company in March 2022. It now has operations in banking, payments, pensions and insurance brokerage.
The banking division has over 700 branches in 24 countries across three continents, with a customer base exceeding 63 million. Its three business segments encompass corporate & investment, commercial and retail.
